February 2013
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and sustainable agriculture: A review
Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria have gained extensive importance worldwide. These are naturally occurring bacteria that actively colonize the plant roots and improve plant growth. Plants inoculated with some potential PGPR strains exhibit improved biomass production. It has been observed that PGPR exert their growth promoting effects on plants by utilizing a number of mechanisms. Taken as an example, PGPR improve...
February 2013
Control of Listeria monocytogenes growth by bacteriocin-producing starter cultures in the manufacturing of dry fermented sausage
The production of dry fermented sausages started as a home-made process, but large-scale industrial manufacture of these products has encountered some safety issues. Although these products present extended shelf-life and offer various hurdles against the growth of undesired organisms, pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes were found to survive. Bacteriocins have been proposed to act as an extra barrier...
February 2013
The effects of virulence factors on invasion in various species of Candida
In the present study, we determined the in vitro and in vivo virulence characteristics ofCandida isolates from 75 non-neutropenic patients with candidemia and analyzed the isolates by receiver-operating characteristics (ROC) analysis to define threshold values of adhesion and hydrophobicity occurring in invasive Candida isolates. Specific virulence traits that were measured...
February 2013
Incidence of air-borne mycoflora of Bagsar Fort and its allied areas from Samahni valley district Bhimber Azad Kashmir, Pakistan
Fungi are potential profounding cause of aeroallergens which are creating a appalling scenario culminating into various fatal diseases to man, livestock and plant biodiversity such asperglosis, mycosis and as smut and rust, respectively. In the present study, air-borne mycoflora of Baghsar Fort Samahni (BFS) and its allied forest (Azad Kashmir, Pakistan) was spatially and temporally analyzed. Spores were collected from...
February 2013
Studies on the optimization of D-erythorbic acid production by Penicillium griseoroseum FZ-13 in relevant fermented culture medium
D-EA obtained by fermentation using micro-organism is a new biological food additive being widely used in the food industry. This work investigated the optimization of the fermented culture medium for maximization of D-erythorbic acid production produced byPenicillium griseoroseum FZ-13 using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). In the first optimization step, a Plackett–Burman design was used to evaluate the...
February 2013
Effect of high pressure carbon dioxide on Staphylococcus aureus biofilm
The effect of high pressure carbon dioxide (HPCD) on Staphylococcus aureus biofilm was studied in detail. The parameters of HPCD such as pressure, temperature and holding time were investigated and optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). A second order equation was established based on the RSM results. It was also found that HPCD could remove S. aureus biofilm to some extent but not...
February 2013
Cloning the Pfu DNA polymerase from DNA contaminants in preparations of commercial Pfu DNA polymerase
The Pfu DNA polymerase gene was cloned from commercial Pfu DNA polymerase by semi-nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a contaminant template in the commercial Pfu DNA polymerase and the activity of the Pfu DNA polymerase itself. We confirmed the occurrence of residual bacterial DNA in standard Pfu DNA polymerase preparations and demonstrated that the commercial...
February 2013
Molecular detection of bla TEM and bla SHV genes among clinical isolates of Escherichia coli from Kashan, Iran
Escherichia spp. are opportunistic pathogens that cause nosocomial infections. Because of their acquisition of multi drug resistant plasmids, these organisms are resistant to a number of antibiotics, including extended spectrum cephalosporins and aminoglycosides. The aim of this study is to detect extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producingEscherichia coli isolated from Shahid Beheshti Hospital in...
February 2013
Molecular typing of methicilin resistant Staphylococcus aureus by spa gene polymorphism
The aim of this study was to detect different genotypes of methicillin resistantStaphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) of the spa gene in Cairo University hospital. A total of 48 samples were obtained from the sputum, infected wound, blood and pleural fluid from Cairo University hospital from the main microbiology laboratory for three...
February 2013
When and which fungal pathogens should come to mind in patients with hematological malignancies?
We retrospectively evaluated the febrile neutropenia episodes of hematological patients and their outcomes with respect to fungal pathogens and antifungal therapy. The study covers all consecutive patients older than 14 years of age and who developed febrile neutropenia episodes from September 2011 and September 2012. 68 consecutive patients with neutropenia and their 129 febrile episodes were analyzed. Mean...
February 2013
DNA microarray analysis of expression of growth phase-responsive genes in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces sp. KH29
Screening of new compounds and elucidation of biosynthetic pathways for secondary metabolites are very important fields of biology; however, most of the currently identified compounds have already been well-researched. Here, we set out to identify genes related to secondary metabolite production, specifically antibiotic production, by Streptomyces sp. KH29, using known DNA chip data for S....
February 2013
Isolation of endophytic fungi from Tripterygium wilfordii and their insecticidal activities
In order to solve the insufficient supplement of important medicinal and agricultural plantTripeterygium silfordii, the endophytic fungi which may produce active compounds were studied in this work. 86 endophytic fungi strains from plant T. wilfordii were isolated and their larvicidal activities were studied in this paper. Morphological observation preliminarily indicated that these fungi belong to 10 genera,...
February 2013
Bovine mastitis: Prevalence of bacterial pathogens and evaluation of early screening test
Mastitis is the most complex and costly disease of dairy cows occurring throughout the world. In Algeria, the disease is not well investigated. A cross-sectional study to elucidate its magnitude, distribution, bacterial causes, and to investigate the reliability of a test for early diagnosis of mastitis in cattle in Blida and Ain Defla governorates, central region of Algeria, was carried out from May to...
February 2013
Development of SCAR marker for specific detection of Aspergillus flavus
Aspergillus flavus is the causal agent of corns and peanuts mold known to produce aflatoxin. A quick and reliable PCR-based diagnostic assay has been developed to detect A. flavus using a fungus-specific marker derived from genomic DNA. An amplified RAPD product of 600 bp obtained in A. flavus isolates using a random primer OPB-11 was cloned in pGEMT easy vector and...
February 2013
Drug susceptibility test on Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolated from pulmonary tuberculosis patients in three sites of Ethiopia
The spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has become a challenge to the global tuberculosis control and prevention program.Nevertheless, no adequate information has been made available on the drug susceptibility status of M. tuberculosis in Ethiopia. Hence, this study aimed atevaluating the drug resistance patterns of M. tuberculosis in the three...
February 2013
Detection limit for differentiating between various Mycobacterium species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) metabolomics: A comparison of two extraction methods
Previously, we investigated the capacity of a metabolomics research approach to characterise and differentiate between various infectious Mycobacterium species andPseudomonas aeruginosa, and compared two extraction procedures, prior to gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and statistical data analyses. In the current investigation, we report that the minimum sample material required...
February 2013
Promotion effects of nitrogen on the cell proliferation of Platymonas subcordiformis evaluated by spectrophotography and cytometry analysis
Platymonas subcordiformis, a model microalga in microalgal biotechnology, is rich in bioactive substances such as fatty acid, protein and vitamin, and hence it has been widely applied in biofuel, environmental purification, and pharmaceutical industry. In the current study, promotion effects of nitrogen on cell proliferation of P. subcordiformis were investigated by using spectrophotography ana-lysis and...
February 2013
Plasmids in races of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. malvacearum (Xam), the causal agent of bacterial blight of cotton
Nine strains belonging to 2 races of Xanthomonas campestris pv. malvacearum (Xam), synonym, Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. malvacearum (Xam) were screened for their plasmid content. One strain belonging to race 4, which has been attenuated as a mutant from race 18 was less virulent than race 18, even though it possessed the same plasmids as race 18 strains. Five groups could be...
February 2013
Novel mutations of hepatitis B virus surface antigen genotype D among chronic Egyptian patients
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a major health problem in Egypt. Mutation studies concerning molecular identification of HBV genotypes/sub genotype are still limited. 100 HBV isolates obtained from Egyptian HBV chronic patients were sequenced to identify the full-length sequence of HBV surface antigen (HBsAg) gene. Obtained sequences of HBsAg isolates were submitted to Gene Bank database under accession numbers HM014049 and...
February 2013
The influence of nutrient and environmental factors on mycelium growth and conidium of false smut Villosiclava virens
Villosiclava virens (anamorph: Ustilaginoidea virens) is the causal agent of rice false smut, a fungal disease that occurs worldwide; however, little information on the basic biology of the fungus is available. In our study, we examined the effect of the culture medium, carbon and nitrogen source, temperature, pH, water potential and light on mycelial growth and the effects of temperature and wetness duration...
February 2013
Heart rot caused by Aspergillus niger through splitting in leathery skin of pomegranate fruit
The pomegranate trees are not affected by any serious disease but the fruit can be damaged by heart rot caused by different fungi and bacteria or after invasion of the insect.Twenty-six (26) samples of splitting pomegranate fruits from different orchards near Cairo, Egypt were examined, and they showed that they contain a spore of Aspergillus niger which may reach the heart of the...
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